Brett Fera Sports Editor

Today marks the second edition of the Wildcat's Friday Football Frenzy ÷ a package of everything the UA football fan needs to know about the upcoming weekend's gridiron action.

Whether the Wildcats are hitting the turf of the friendly confines of Arizona Stadium or out on the road, this is the place to turn for game previews and opponent analyses, a breakdown of the weekend's Pacific 10 Conference action, and special features about anything and everything, from the life of a mascot to fan reaction.

It's a new dawn in the information age, and that especially applies to sports coverage. This makes for a new era in our coverage as well, and what should be a new era for Arizona football.

It can probably go without saying that the UA is a "basketball school." While the football coaching staffs may beg to differ, it is no secret that the bread and butter of Arizona athletics are the boys who call McKale Center their home.

UA basketball probably need not be tweaked, but it was time the Wildcat made an adjustment, and it's time UA football make adjustments of its own.

That all starts tomorrow.

Louisiana State is coming to town.

Our brothers from the Bayou. The cream of the Southeastern Conference crop. The Tigers ÷ who traditionally play week-to-week in front of nearly 100,000 rabid Cajuns ÷ are ready to see the glitz and glamour of Arizona Stadium's "Nike-inspired" turf design ÷ not to mention their opponent's meager 56,000-plus-seat playpen.

LSU football ÷ along with Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, etc. ÷ is SEC football. Big-time ball at big-time sports schools in the big South.

It's the real deal there. None of this Pac-10, throw-all-day-who-cares-about-defense kind of ball played west of the Mississippi. Arizona used to be all about the "D," but the days of Dick Tomey and his run-up-the-middle offense are long gone. The problem is, so is the thought that the Wildcats might make it to a bowl game.

Keanu Reeves' character in Speed was under the impression that Arizona had a good football team. It's too bad that now that notion seems like just another case of Hollywood distorting reality.

The disparity even stretches to outside the stadium, and prior to the opening kickoff.

Florida and Georgia have "the world's biggest cocktail party" when they square off.

Conversely, tailgating at the UA has become so limited that university higher-ups have decided to move the pre-game ritual off of the center of the mall (so that the grass doesn't die for no good reason) and onto the tiny space adjacent to the Eddie Lynch Athletics Pavilion.

It's time for all that to change, and all it takes is another Nic Costa 27-yard scamper on the opening play, or a replay of that Ryan O'Hara-to-Lance Relford 79-yard strike.

Arizona dismantled Texas-El Paso last Saturday like it should have ÷ in front of 15,000 empty seats ÷ even if some detractors thought the Miners had a chance.

But come tomorrow, the Wildcat ballers better wipe those smiles off their faces.

LSU is no joke, and Arizona shouldn't be either.

If UA football wants to be taken seriously when it hits the road at venues like Purdue's Ross-Ade Stadium, it all starts against LSU.

Does Arizona have the talent of a team like the Tigers? No, probably not.

But that's what makes college football unlike any other sport. Beating a top-ten caliber team ÷ in your own house, nonetheless ÷ and making it on SportsCenter after your supporters rip down your goalposts is enough to earn immediate respect, something that UA football lacks.

Beating LSU doesn't take a miracle. It takes a string of steady play, attached to two or three big plays on each side of the ball, and presto: You have your upset.

The Wildcats are capable of that and more. If they were only ready to show it.

The two neon-yellow goalposts sitting at the ends of the Arizona Stadium Bermuda turf are said to run about $30,000 each to replace ÷ a cost that UA athletics director Jim Livengood would gladly eat if it meant selling another 15,000 tickets.

The only way more tickets are going to be sold is if the boys in cardinal and navy start to sell the notion that they are a serious football team. When they hit the field against LSU tomorrow night, they'll get that chance.